The Inventor of Bluetooth Technology, a Film Star Once Considered the Most Beautiful Woman in the World

Keywords

Frequency hopping, spread spectrum communication technology, dominant design, disruptive technology, incremental innovation, technological transition, intellectual property rights.

Highlights

1. Frequency hopping technology was an innovative disruptive technology that was ahead of its time.
2. The invention became a dominant design as it is now commonly used throughout the world for all wireless communication.
3. Intellectual Property Rights were issued for the invention in the form of a patent but did not add any value to the inventor in this particular case.
4. At the time of the invention the innovation was radical but improvements to the technology are now only incremental.

Overview

When you think about breakthrough technology, what comes to mind? A breakthrough technology is so revolutionary that nothing is ever the same again, which is why it can also be called ‘radical’ or ‘disruptive’. It completely changes the way of doing things. I can think of a few examples in my lifetime where technological innovation was so disruptive that our lives were never the same afterwards, such as the invention of cell phones, WiFi, email, and nanotechnology.

Hedy Lamarr was an actress known as the most beautiful woman in the world, but she was also an inventor during the time of World War II, which was revolutionary in itself. It was not common at that time for women to be inventors, scientists, or technologists.

She was compelled to try to help the war effort and saw an opportunity to improve torpedo technology. Torpedos were hard to control, so she thought that if they were radio-guided they would be more successful.

Figure 1: Torpedo Assembly During World War II.

Her invention was called spread spectrum communication technology, in which a noise-like signal is transmitted on a much-larger bandwidth than the frequency of the original information. It provided a method of secret communication which is relatively simple and reliable in operation, but at the same time is difficult to discover or decipher. Lamarr submitted her idea to the National Inventor’s Council and received a patent for her “Secret Communication System” in 1942.

Unfortunately Lamarr did not gain any monetary value from her patent. She submitted her invention to the US military to use without wanting any recognition for the invention, but was subsequently ignored by them. The invention was so innovative that it later achieved commercialization in 1962. The U.S. army later recognized Lamarr’s genius, using her invention in military ships against a Cuban blockade. Variations on the technology are now standard in modern society. The breakthrough innovation has led to cell phone networks, communication satellites, and Bluetooth technology.

1. Introduction

The objective of this research was to analyze the process of technological innovation from conceptualization of a new technology through commercial utilization. Spread spectrum communication technology was created and patented a century prior to its common use today. The war had created an opportunity for inventors to develop this revolutionary technology.

Topics which will be covered include an overview of the radical breakthrough innovation which was patented by Lamarr, the concept of dominant design, the challenges faced by entrepreneurs, intellectual property and innovation, and the adaptation of innovative technology for the greater good of society.

Hedy Lamarr was an inventor ahead of her time. The technology which she invented did not gain recognition for military purposes until two decades after her patent was issued. It did not gain commercial utilization until recent decades with the proliferation of wireless communication. The disruptive technology has now achieved widespread use and has become entrenched in our society.

2. Background

At the height of her career as a Holywood actress, Hedy Lamarr would come to be recognized also for her genius as an inventor. Lamarr had a great interest in science growing up in Austria, but decided to pursue acting instead (Greenfield, 2010). In an attempt to help the US World War II effort, she invented what would later become the innovation behind many wireless technologies used today, including Bluetooth, GPS, and cellphone networks (National Public Radio, 2011).

Figures 2, 3, and 4: Hedy Lamarr during her acting career in the 1940s.

Lamarr had a creative, inventive spirit and had a drafting table in her house where she would try to come up with inventions to improve the world (Couey, 1997). She was inspired to help the war effort when she saw German submarines targeting passenger cruise liners (Adams, 2011). Torpedoes were powerful weapons but difficult to control; she understood that they would be more accurate if they were radio-guided.

Radio signals were easily jammed, but if a technology were invented that would allow frequencies to hop around on different frequencies, there was less chance of them being interrupted (Couey, 1997). Lamarr and her co-inventor, composer George Antheil, figured out how to use the mechanics of the player piano to create the earliest version of the frequency-hopping spread-spectrum system (Greenfield, 2010). The device they created employed a constantly roving radio signal that could guide torpedoes (Adams, 2011). The innovation was an early form of spread spectrum communication technology, or frequency hopping (See Figure 5 below for illustration).

Figure 5: the frequency-hopping spread-spectrum system (Greenfield, 2010).

The inventors submitted their spread-spectrum radio idea to the National Inventor’s Council and received a patent in 1942 (Adams, 2011). They shared their invention with the Navy, but the Navy did not pay attention. Lamarr was not taken seriously as an inventor and was told to use her celebrity status to raise funds for the war effort instead (Oulette, 2012). Frequency hopping was an innovation that was ahead of its time — it needed technology and society to catch up.

Years later, the Navy was looking for a technology that used sonar to detect submarines in the water and transmit the information to an airplane above, but needed a way to jam-proof the signal between the buoy and the plane (National Public Radio, 2011). That’s when they resuscitated the idea of frequency-hopping and built it into the sonobuoy. The system was installed on ships sent to blockade Cuba in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis, three years after Lamarr’s and Antheil’s patent had expired (Oulette, 2012). In recent decades, the technology began to be frequently used in a variety of applications.

Figure 6: U.S. President John F. Kennedy addresses the nation during the Cuban Missile Crisis on October 24, 1962.

The military as well as private companies began building technology around Lamarr’s invention. What started as an idea to help guide military torpedoes turned out to be a dominant design in society. The original patent has been incrementally improved upon to what it has become today, including what would become Bluetooth and WiFi. Her frequency hopping invention can be found in all digital devices that communicate wirelessly. Amazing!

3. Analysis

The type of innovation which Lamarr had invented was a breakthrough innovation which disrupted the old pattern of doing things (Fagerberg, 2005). The frequency hopping technology revolutionized our society. What was developed to assist the war effort in the 1940s was later adapted and continually improved upon to what it has become today. The disruptive technology became the dominant design; this type of technology is now an industry standard and used in a multitude of applications (Utterback, 1994).

Spread spectrum is a revolutionary technology because it renders radio spectrum prolific enough for everyone to use; it was once deemed only accessible to large rich corporations (Couey, 1997). Frequency hopping technology contributed to the greater good of society. The technology can still be improved upon and companies are coming up new with ways to continually develop it.

Lamarr used intellectual property rights to obtain a patent on her invention but decided to donate her invention to the government for a greater cause. She could have licensed her patent and profited from it, but the technology was ahead of its time and the patent had expired by the time the technology was being used in a practical way. In this case the inventor was not able to gain financial benefit from her invention, which is usually one of the drivers of innovation and the utilization of intellectual property rights (Reitzing, 2004).

The invention was filling a void in the market before society realized that the demand existed. Under normal circumstances, the use of intellectual property rights can foster technological innovation (Fagerberg, 2005). Patents allow inventors to profit from their creativity by giving them monopolies on their creations for a specific time period (Canadian Intellectual Property Office, 2016). The ability to register patents creates incentive for research and development (Reitzing, 2004). Without patent protection, many inventors might not take the risk of investing the time or money needed to create new inventions or improve upon existing inventions.

The shift from using the same radio frequency to communicate remotely to using multiple frequencies is an example of a technological transition. Technological transitions occur as incremental changes are made to technology that affects how people use it (Dodgson, 2000). These transitions occur due to dominant designs and industry standards. What started as a military application transitioned to the dominant way in which we communicate.

4. Conclusions

Dominant designs can help guide industry standards, as in the case of spread spectrum communication technology. The frequency hopping technology which was patented in the 1940s to assist in the war effort was ahead of its time. The technology remained a government trade secret for military use until the 1960s but has now revolutionized the way we communicate. All wireless communication technology is based on this invention.

This type of technology was disruptive to society. It introduced a new paradigm and the new way that we do business. Once a disruptive technology is introduced, the technology transitions as it is incrementally improved upon. The frequency hopping technology is now in use in a variety of applications and forms the basis of how we communicate today.

Intellectual property rights are a way for companies to add value and create competitive advantage. The patent system offers inventors an incentive to develop new innovations. In the case of Lamarr, she did not gain from her patent, but her patent significantly contributed to the proliferation of society.

References

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Oullette, J. (2012). Hop, skip and a jump: Remembering Hedy Lamar. Scientific American.

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